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This is a very scarce example of the transfer printed illustrated baby's feeding dish featuring the iconic nursery rhyme THE CAT AND THE FIDDLE.

The sturdy, grounded dish measures 8 inches in diameter with a wide rim and foot and deep center well. Transfer printed in sepia brown and hand colored under the glaze in an earthy palette of green and mocha brown. The bowl is from a seriesware dessert and feeding dish nurseryware set made specially for children as part of the maker’s N Series (N is for Nursery) featuring nursery tales and nursery rhymes with previously published illustrations. This bowl features a cat playing the fiddle, dancing pigs and a cow jumping over the moon. Encircling the image is the iconic stanza:

Hey Diddle Diddle The Cat & The Fiddle

The Cow Jumped Over The Moon

The bowl is marked with the trademark of Bishop and Stonier BISTO. It also has a faint decorator’s mark N45 - H. This example of the nurseryware series made by Bishop and Stonier is one of very few, as they are becoming very impossible to find in the marketplace.

Bishop & Stonier (BISTO) was one of the later Staffordshire factories that deserves recognition for their creativity and whimsy. They started life in 1891 and were bought out by the George Jones factory in the 1930s. They mainly exported domestic goods, but they also made this wonderful line of late 19th and early 20th century decorative nursery wares.

The bowl is in very good condition, with no chips cracks or repairs. Wear to the foot and underedge, utensil wear and light glaze crazing, consistent with age. A nice example of early English children’s ceramic wares, made as christening presents or gifts for good children as rewards of merit and to aid in their education and schooling. Offered as is.